A mentally unstable man orchestrated a bloodbath in Chhattisgarh's impoverished tribal pocket in Balrampur district on Thursday and axed to death nine females, aged between 2-65 years, police and eye witnesses said.
The bodies of four female adults and five minors, were lying in a pool of blood for hours in the afternoon. The accused, Pandu Nageshia, 35, was tracked down when Balrampur district collector CR Prasanna and district superintendent of police GS Darro reached Barhatola village under Samri police station with the police team.
"Man who is reportedly mentally unstable carried out the brutal act of murder,'' the district collector told The Pioneer from the village which comes under State's northern region, more than 400 km from Raipur.
Prasanna informed, "I too am in a state of shock after visiting the village and seeing the bodies scattered outside a house where the deceased had assembled as their male family members were out on daily work."
Darro said while quoting eye-witnesses that the accused armed with a sharp-edged weapon - 'tangia', went on a killing spree all of sudden at around 1.30 pm. The deceased were identified as lalki Bai (60 year), Kusum Nageshia (4 year), Manju Nageshia (3 year), Sitamuni Bai (25 year), Priyanka (2 year), Machki Bai (65 year) Kalgi Bai (60 year), Sangeeta (10 year) and Sanjeeta (3 year).
Darro added that villagers were highly terrified after the incident and police force had been deployed in the village which has roughly 22 families.
Villagers claim that the accused had some mental problem and the murder was entirely unprovoked. The eye-witnesses said that the killer chopped off females, some of them were chased down while two children were asleep.